US President Donald Trump on February 21, 2025, the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, USA.
Nathan Howard | Reuters
The Supreme Court on Friday now blocked President Donald Trump from firing the head of a watchdog in the first legal showdown to meet the efforts of the administration’s justices to make a major remake of the federal government.
In unusual moves, the court neither approved nor rejected an urgent request from the Trump administration, as the lower court blocked Hampton Dellinger, the Han of the Special Counsel’s Office, was blocked by the lower courts. Hampton Dellinger.
Instead, the court stated in a brief order that no immediate action would be taken as lower court litigation was developing rapidly. The hearing is scheduled to be held on February 26.
The court can take action later.
Liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson say they will completely deny the application, while the court’s conservatives – Neil Goers Gorsuch and Judge Clarence Thomas said they would grant the application.
Trump wants to serve as director of the agency at the Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins.
The emergency request could be the first of many such applications made by the Supreme Court after a lower court ruling hinders Trump’s aggressive and unprecedented reorganization of federal agencies. The president’s alliance with billionaire Elon Musk has fired thousands of workers in an attempt to block federal spending and attempt to remove adverse agencies, including the U.S. International Development Agency.
Acting Attorney General Sarah Harris asked the Supreme Court to intervene, referring to a series of temporary restraining orders issued by federal judges that at least temporarily blocked Trump’s various initiatives.
“The court should not allow the judiciary to rule through temporary restraining orders and replace judicial responsibility for constitutional orders,” she wrote.
Harris also spoke about the latest statements from administration officials, including Vice President Judd Vance, which appeared to raise questions about whether the White House complies with court orders.
“The administration is committed to complying with the constitutional obligations of the court orders in Article 3 and here to perform this duty,” she wrote.
The Office of Special Lawyers deals with various issues related to federal employees, oversees protection of whistleblowers and restrictions on political activities. The office can propose enforcement actions and issue regulations; it has nothing to do with the Justice Department’s ability to appoint special attorneys federally prosecuted.
Dellinger took office in 2024 after being taken over by former President Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate.
Trump attempted to evacuate him from the office on February 7, prompting Dalinger to file a lawsuit.
Under federal law, the head of the agency has a five-year term and the president can “simply because of inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance.”
But the Supreme Court has previously stated that similar restrictions on presidential power are unconstitutional because they violate the president’s core constitutional powers.
In 2020, the court ruled these grounds in a case involving the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and made a similar ruling on federal housing financial institutions a year later.
Washington-based federal judge Amy Berman Jackson released a stay on February 10 to prevent Dellinger from being removed as the case proceeded, and subsequently issued a temporary restriction The order was extended by two weeks.
The Trump administration appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which refused to vote 2-1 to overturn the ruling. The government then turned to the Supreme Court.
